There's been a flurry of activity recently in the Zundel case. Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 12, Mr. Zundel's certificate review hearing resumes before former CSIS boss and now the judge of CSIS evidence in this case, Mr. Justice Pierre Blais. The court is at 361 University Avenue in Toronto and the hearing begins at 9:00 a.m.

Look for some exciting testimony in the next few days, lawyer Peter Lindsay advises. Ernst Zundel will again be on the stand.

Not such good news was delivered to Mr. Zundel by the Federal Court of Appeal in a judgement appropriatedly enough dated April 1 -- April Fool's Day. The Court of Appeals turned down Mr. Zundel's appeal against a decision in January by Mr. Justice Blais to deny Mr. Zundel's request for the names of all "CSIS and RCMP officers as well as any other public servants of Canada, who interiewed Mr. Zundel or others about him, including date of interview and whether any such record is available." Such information had been disclosed to the accused in several of the other national certificate cases wending their way through the courts.

At the heart of this appeal is the fact that Mr. Justice Blais' decision will be final. It cannot be appealed and, if it finds that the certificate alleging that Mr. Zundel is a terrorist and, therefore a threat to national security, is "reasonable" -- he doesn't have to find that the absurd allegations are true -- then the certificate becomes a deportation order. Mr. Zundel's appeal sought to overturn "interlocutory" decisions by the the judge; in other words, he attempted to question the judgement or fairness of certain procedures.

No, says the Federal Court of Appeal: Not only is the judge's final decision unappealable, but any decisions along the way are also final. "The fact that the designated judge's decision regarding the disclosure of evidence to Mr. Zundel was part of the ultimate determination into the reasonableness of the certificate under subsection 80(1) and as a result, cannot be appealed purusant to subsection 80(3) is also supported by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Tobiass."

Naturally, the Court of Appeal also refused to stay the proceedings. Peter Lindsay, Mr. Zundel's lead counsel, is not discouraged. "Well, now they say the lack of the right to appeal covers all the steps toward the decision. The defendant now has even fewer rights. There are secret hearings, there's no right to appeal against the final decision and now there's no interlocutory right of appeal. This is a good clean legal issue for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada," the combattive counsel concludes.

In another development, Deputy Prime Minister and the minister in charge of security and public safety Anne McLellan was ambushed on Monday, April 5, at a meeting of German-American businessmen in Edmonton. A questioner confronted her and declared: "It's shameful what's been done to Ernst Zundel," referring to his year-long incarceration in solitary confinement and the bogus accusations that he's a terrorist.

Miss McLellan was in full retreat. She pack-pedalled furiously and alibied: "I did not swear out the certificate." In a major reversal of the diffident, some may say meek and cowardly behaviour of so many Germans in Canada when their rights are being taken away, the audience loudly applauded the questioner.

Mr. Zundel has been avidly following from prison the spate of apparent "anti-Semitic" incidents -- the e-mailing, the knocked over Jewish tombstones, the graffiti and, most recently, the firebombing of the library of a Jewish school in Montreal. He believes that some, if not all, of these incidents are hoaxes. He points to the fact that the press hysteria over this wave of seeming "anti-Semitism" has all but drowned out the good publicity his case was getting in the Globe and Mail, where Kirk Makin's articles and editorial were focussing on the unfairness of the secret hearings. The hype about what amounts, with the exception of the arson attack, to petty vandalism has also neatly taken attention away from Israel's latest wave of assassinations, mostly unarmed and infirm seniors, in Palestine.

Mr. Zundel points to Markus Wolf. "He was Jewish and the head of the East German STASI (secret police). He returned from Moscow with his parents in 1945 on a Soviet tank. After the fall of the Wall, it was revealed that Wolf and his STASI initiated the painting of a Cologne synagogue with swastikas and the toppling of Jewish tombstones in Frankfurt in 1959-60." These outrages were, of course, attributed to so-called "neo-Nazis." "In fact, they were instigated by the communist STASI. That got Germany their its 'hate laws" which have strangled the German resistance," Mr. Zundel explained to me when I saw him at the Metro West Detention Centre on April 9.

January and February have been very expensive months for the Zundel case. We have spent just over $70,000. Yes, part of this was to bring the Lindsays up to speed in the case. We had six court dates -- four in federal court and two in Superior Court in Ontario for a habeas corpus motion in November and December and eight more in January and February. Canada's vindictive systgem madet Ernst Zundelspend Christmas in prison. April promises to be an expensive month, with four days planned in Federal Court -- April 13, 14, 29 and 30.

The Defence Fund is very seriously depleted and we face major outlays in the New Year. I again ask for your commitment and urgent help. Please mail us your contribution today or e-mail us your VISA number and expiry date. We have a number of delicate colour-pencil sketches by Ernst Zundel done in prison. Each is dated and signed. Each is a nature study. Mr. Zundel has long been a paint and sketch artist. He had returned to his love of art before the U.S. I.N.S picked him up and deported him. All donors of $100 or more will receive one of these sketches. Mail your donation today to CAFE, Box 332, Rexdale, ON., M9W 5L3, Canada or e-mail us your VISA number and expiry date. On your cheque or an accompanying piece of paper, note: "For Zundel Defence Fund."